Vallejo, CA: Vallejo police shoot, kill armed domestic violence suspect

VALLEJO, Calif. —

Police shot and killed an armed domestic violence suspect in the parking lot of a Vallejo Safeway store early Wednesday morning, Vallejo police said.

Officers were dispatched to 142 Buss Ave. at 2:55 a.m. after police received a report that a man was hitting and possibly choking a woman at a home there.

While the officers were en route, police received another call reporting that the man had driven to a Safeway supermarket at 709 Lincoln Road West and was parked near the gas pumps there, police said.

The caller said the man had a gun, and gave police a description of his car.

Police arrived and located the man, later identified as 44-year-old Marshall Tobin, in the parking lot of the Safeway.

Tobin was inside the car, but as police approached he got out of the vehicle and the officers saw that he had a handgun and appeared to be distraught, police said.

They ordered Tobin to place his hands on his head, and when he didn't comply, they shot him with a Taser gun, police said. As the Taser was being deployed, Tobin allegedly reached for and grabbed his gun, and officers fired at him with their service weapons, according to police.

Tobin was pronounced dead at the scene.

A Vallejo police officer was hit by flying debris during the incident and suffered a moderate injury, police said.

Police Sgt. Herman Robinson said the debris was possibly a bullet fragment and that it had struck the male officer in the lower leg. He was treated for the wound and released.

Robinson said the woman who was allegedly being assaulted by Tobin appears to have been Tobin's girlfriend, and was not seriously injured. He said it was one of her children who called police to report the assault.

He said two male officers fired at Tobin after the Taser proved ineffective and Tobin reached for the gun.

Robinson said police have cleared the scene and left the Safeway parking lot. He said the store opened at its scheduled time Wednesday morning.

The shooting will be investigated by the Vallejo Police Department and the Solano County District Attorney's Office. The officers involved have been placed on paid administrative leave, as is protocol.

This is the second fatal officer-involved shooting in Vallejo in the past week. On Saturday, police shot and killed 17-year-old armed robbery suspect Jared Huey on Sheridan Street after they say he pointed a gun at them.